Pet owners wanting to send their dogs on vacation will have to find another option, after the Fayette County Commission Thursday decided not to revisit their ordinances concerning a kennel in an Agricultural-Residential zoning district.

Mike Faulkner, who represented Dick and Susan Goda, told the County Commission that his clients had purchased a 12-acre site on Redwine Road near Ga. Highway 74 that would serve as a perfect site for a doggie daycare center.

The site featured rolling terrain, and already had a 10,000 square-foot house that was not fit for humans, but would serve as a perfect home away from home for dogs.

The only problem, Faulkner said, was the home was within 300 feet of the property line. As a conditional use in the zoning category, a kennel must be at least 300 feet from the property line. Since the area is surrounded by A-R, Faulkner wondered if the County Commission couldn’t look at changing the ordinance to allow the doggie day care center to operate on the property.

“We’re trying to provide something that residents have said they wanted,” said Susan Goda.

Despite liking Goda’s proposal, the commissioners could not support revisiting the ordinance.

“I’ve got a problem with this, because it’s a conditional use. We would have to change our ordinances and the people would not be protected,” said Chairman Greg Dunn.

Commissioner Peter Pfeifer said if the ordinance was changed, a bad precedent would be set.

“If we changed this, people could not rely on us,” he said.

Goda wondered why the law applied only to family pets.

“You’ve got horses on the next property that come right up to the property line,” she said.

The commissioners could not answer why the ordinance was written in its current form, but said they had to protect all the residents in the county.